Stamp Out Poverty

Richard Wyatt urges us all to help stamp out poverty

Climate change is disproportionately affecting developing countries. Campaigning is needed in order to achieve progress on the Millennium Development Goals

In 2005 campaigners were very excited as many promises were made for more aid, more debt relief and fairer trade agreements for developing countries, but as we move towards the 2015 deadline for the Millennium Development Goals little has been achieved and global warming is adding to the problems of those who suffer most from Climate Change.

I personally feel if we are going to be able to meet the Millennium Development Goals and help the poorest people adapt to the ever growing costs of Climate Change (which makes the money needed far higher then the 0.7% of national income pledged - whether the governments of the world will even make this modest target is still yet to be seen) we need additional sources of finance. One idea that appeals to me is the levying of a tiny charge on currency exchange. A tax of less than a hundredth of 1% would be too small to affect the City of London where billions are exchanged every day (untaxed) yet it would raise about $5 billion annually.

At the end of last year an All-Party Group of parliamentarians highly recommended that the UK Government urgently pursue a stamp duty on large-value trades of sterling to create additional aid finance to help bridge the funding gap required to meet the Development Goals.

In April, Ban Ki-moon became the first UN Secretary-General to go on record describing the feasibility of a currency transaction levy to boost development spending:

"there is renewed international interest in a possible Currency Transaction Development Levy of 0.005 per cent, a minuscule tax that is not expected to materially affect market operations while having the potential to generate billions of dollars that can be allocated for development."

On top of this, the Secretary-General has appointed former French foreign minister, Philippe Douste-Blazy, to the newly created position of Special Representative for Innovative Finance. In his maiden speech in his new role, Mr Douste-Blazy stated for the first time in a UN plenary session that "we must have taxes on currency transactions". Such high level endorsement marks an unprecedented step forward for the campaign.

With all this exciting news it's looking that this campaign could become a reality, if you are interested in being part of this momentum for change please write to your MP now, a model letter can be found on Stamp Out Poverty's website: http://www.stampoutpoverty.org/?lid=10729.